Amnesty International says the U.S.-led coalition and the U.S.-backed Iraqi forces violated international law and may have committed war crimes during the battle to seize control of Mosul from ISIS.
Nicolette Waldman: “Amnesty International found that both ISIS as well as Iraqi and coalition forces inflicted massive harm on civilians during the battle for west Mosul. On the one hand, ISIS was systematically moving thousands of civilians into the fighting, and then they trapped them there. And then, on the other hand, Iraqi and coalition forces bombarded these same areas with a relentless series of attacks that killed and injured thousands of civilians.”
Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, who oversees the campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, denied the U.S.-led coalition broke international law, claiming instead the campaign against ISIS is the “most precise campaign in the history of warfare.” Thousands of civilians were killed during the nine-month battle in Mosul, and nearly 1 million residents were forced to flee their homes.